Looking Back

About the first decade of the 21st century, this TIME magazine cover says it all.  So does this excerpt from an accompanying essay by Andy Serwer:

Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post-World War II era . . . . Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade.  Call it whatever you want -- just give thanks that it is nearly over.

Thank you, Jesus.

Among the worst things of the decade cited by TIME are the contested presidential election of 2000, declaring war on Iraq, the Sumatra tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the market meltdown and Guantanamo. 

The most defining moment of the decade, however, was the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. which redefined global politics and made most Americans question the security they had previously taken for granted.  If for no other reason, the Sassistas! are thankful to say good riddance to all that, though global terror has hardly diminished.

Aside from these jaw-dropping and life-ending moments of the decade, consider the following: ten years ago, there was no Google, no Facebook, no Twitter.  A Blackberry was a two-way pager.  The iPhone?  Not to be found.  Huffington Post?  Nope.  There were, however, newspapers and magazines and . . . what are those things called, again? You know, those things with covers and pages with words printed on them?  Oh, yeah . . . books. 

Took only a decade, but we don't seem to read anymore.  We just scan.  We aren't in touch with reality anymore, only "reality" as it is shoved down our throats by television.  We don't think.  We just swallow.  Ten years ago, we didn't have the fantasy of celebrity culture 24/7, 24/7, 24/7, 24/7 as we do today.  It is a culture designed not simply to entertain, but also to keep us from fighting back.  Style and story, not content and fact, inform mass politics, mass media, mass everything.  Let's not CLARIFY an issue.  Let's PERSONALIZE it.  Let's MORALIZE it.

In one decade, thanks largely to pervasive technology and 24/7 celebrity news, we have come to prefer personality over character. Ten years ago, we honored hard work, integrity and courage.  Today's consumption-oriented culture honors charm, fascination, and likeability.  It thrives on happy thoughts, manipulated emotions and trust in the beneficence of power.  We either sing along or are voted off the island like losers.

Let's stop singing that happy tune.  Life's a bitch and then you live.  We've got work to do.

So turn off your computers.  Turn off your cellphones.  Turn off your TV. 

Get up.

The Sassistas! want all of you to get up out of your chairs. We want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell:  "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"   Things have got to change.  But first, you've gotta get mad! . . . You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

Now onto the next decade.

Comments

[Flannista]

The baby on the TIME magazine cover is looking for a window.

[Flannista]

Ten years ago, FOX news was nuthin'.

Get me to a window.

[Flannista]

Sarah Palin's book is a best-seller.

Window, please.

[Flannista]

Levi Johnston earned more money for his Playgirl shoot than the Sassistas! have earned in four years combined.

Why do I EVEN KNOW THAT?

[Flannista]

Ann Hornaday, one of the Washington Post film critics, named "Finding Nemo" the best film of the decade.

Should we offer her a chair or steer her toward a window?

[Flannista]

Definitely a chair for this sweet dude:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/12/29/vo.il.baby.giraffe.wqad

[Flannista]

Definitely a window for this sour one:

http://www.newsgroper.com/files/post_images/cheney_grr.jpg

[Jerseysista]

Hey, All. Flann has really stepped up and put action behind her words. I was just on the phone with her while she stepped out onto her porch and shouted as loud as she could, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!"

The neighbors should be awake now!

[half-a-sista]

When I opened the link for "this sweet dude" who should appear but William Shatner. It was the commercial before the real piece played about the baby giraffe. Took me awhile to figure that one out. I was ready to offer you a window.

FOX News is still nothing.

Levi Johnson and the Palin pack will continue their battle just like the media whores they are. Levi will show more of his stuff and Sarah and Bristol will show more of their stuff and soon we will turn all of them into major media celebrities when they should have been left to die in the wilderness of Alaska, eaten by wolves with bad taste. Instead they will become cultural icons of something ugly about America.

The first decade of the 2000's was the first sign of death of the American empire and American democracy. Cracks had appeared in the latter part of the 20th Century, but those cracks widened and deepened to an alarming degree in the first decade of this century.

And then I remind myself that people have predicted the end of the world since the beginning of time. Things change. The pendulum swings between life and death at different rates for everything. I have a limited perspective. I'll live until I die. That's all I can guarantee.

[Flannista]

Jersey: I fear the SHA-MAN might be coming by to offer me his special holy water.

[half-a-sista]

I put on my two pairs of socks, my scarf, and my hooded winter coat. I grabbed a shovel and stepped out on the porch to clear the steps and sidewalk of the 40% chance of snow that arrived with 2 inches of realized potential. I started screaming, "I'M MAD AS HELL AND WON'T TAKE ANYMORE OF THIS." Several neighbors looked out of their windows. I'm inside now.

I think America faces...sorry, gotta go. The police are at my door with guns drawn.

(This, of course, is a joke.)

[Flannista]

Interesting perspective, half-a, about the first decade of the 21st century being the first sign of death of the American empire and American democracy. You know that Jonathan Edwards was sermonizing about that in the 18th century? America was going to hell because we were sinners in the hands of an angry God. All to say that I'm trying to have a long-term perspective on this. The Americans living through the Civil War must have thought the 1860s were the decade from hell. Or the 1930s, etc.

Still, the first 10 years of 2000 were really, really awful. The worst in my life time.

Uh-oh . . . back to the porch.

[Chrysosistah]

LOL! I'm right next to a big slider, but I'm not hollering, as I will alarm all the animals inside and out and awaken Kiddo, who's enjoying a vacation day sleep-in. But I'm with you in spirit!!

I know Google was around 10 years ago, I used it. Otherwise, completely glad to see the back of this decade. Kinda feel sorry for Kiddo, growing up in times such as these.

Love the term, "media whores". That sums it up nicely. And I usually detest that word...

[Flannista]

half-a: but you really did yell, "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

You did, didn't you? I don't want to be the only one in the 'sphere to have frightened the neighbors today.

[Chrysosistah]

Hey, and who's this WE, Kemosabe??

"Took only a decade, but we don't seem to read anymore. We just scan. We aren't in touch with reality anymore, only "reality" as it is shoved down our throats by television. We don't think. We just swallow. Ten years ago, we didn't have the fantasy of celebrity culture 24/7, 24/7, 24/7, 24/7 as we do today. It is a culture designed not simply to entertain, but also to keep us from fighting back."

That ain't me, and it sure as hell ain't you - I don't believe it's anyone here in the 'sphere!!

[Flannista]

Thanks for correcting me, Chryso. Google was around a decade ago, but a mere blip compared to what it is today, correct? I mean, 10 years ago, I didn't use "google" as a verb.

But darlin' -- you gotta YELL. You gotta HOLLER. Wake up Kiddo. Get him to HOLLER, too. The animals will be okay. But you gotta GET MAD!

[Flannista]

Chryso -- I didn't think anyone in the 'sphere would think "we" was them. I'm referring to many Americans . . . our culture in general. Sorry if you felt jabbed . . . but there's only one way that you can feel better . . .

You gotta YELL. You gotta HOLLER.

You gotta GET MAD!

[treesta]

I recently looked at an online photo gallery article (very little text, the message all embedded within the photos) from the Huffington Post entitled "Twelve Things That Became Obsolete This Decade" -- A fitting "article" and article style from this news source that didn't exist ten years ago!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/26/obsolete-things-that-expi_n_402674.html

The one that struck me the most was -- address books. Our address books defined us in so many ways. Recently, we were going through the last of Mom's things. Among them was her address book. 60 years of her history, battered by almost daily use, held together by a rubber band. The oldest entries were written with her old fountain pen in that distinctive royal blue ink. Those phone numbers were just 4 digits long, and the zip codes and the seven-digit numbers and the most recent ten-digit numbers were scribbled in much later in a different ink.

Now "we" keep everything in our cell phones or our google accounts. We don't even bother to memorize phone numbers, because we speed dial everything. How many phone numbers could you "dial" from memory now? Me -- my childhood home and dc's cell number. That's about it. I don't even know the landline number to the house I own.

[Flannista]

Great comment, treesta. Great link, too. The thing that became obsolete this decade that made me most sad was "hand-written letters." I guess that goes hand-in-hand (so to speak) with the disappearance of address books. (Your description of your mother's address book is vivid and poignant, by the way.)

With my new iPhone, I don't even have to TOUCH the screen -- I can call using voice activation. I'm not kidding. I wonder whose number would come up if I yelled into the phone, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore."

One of the loveliest holiday gifts I received was "Yours Ever: People and Their Letters" by Thomas Mallon -- about the art of letter writing.

treesta -- you yelling where you are?

[treesta]

What I'm yelling most about, Flann, is global warming/pollution and our collective inability to do what scientists know must be done. We are destroying our planet, and our grandchildren, if not our children, will call us to account for our (lack of) actions.

In the thirty years of my marriage, I drove from Washington DC to Clarksburg, West Virginia, on average, four times a year. In the last 5-8 years of those drives, I watched as huge stands of trees on the windward side of the highest mountains slowly died, whole mountainsides of suffocating trees.

Yeah, Flann, I'm yelling.

[Flannista]

Gosh, treesta -- shame on me about not even thinking about how much worse global warming has gotten over the past decade.

Sigh.

Window, please.

[Flannista]

Hey, Chryso -- you reminded me of something that was good about the first decade: HARRY POTTER!

Take a chair, J.K. Rowling!

[Chrysosistah]

Too true, Flannista -- HP was great escapism for the whole family, I still enjoy listening to the audio books while I work.

treesta, totally hear what you're saying & feeling re: global warming and the environment. It is dead depressing to see how thoughtless regular people can be, and how callous and cruel businesses can be about our mother Earth. I mean, c'mon, people, it's the only home we have!!

[half-a-sista]

Although Jonathan Edwards was concerned about America's decline because of her failing Christian fundamentalism in the 18th century, I had no such concern about America's religious health in first decade of the 21st century. Religion in America has been morally corrupt for most of our history, but particularly so in the latter part of the 20th century and definitely the first decade of the 21st century. The politicalization of the Christian fundamentalists/evangelicals has turned those people away from their god and to the worldly pursuit of Caesar's things: government positions, government aid for their charitable programs, mega-churches, Christian capitalism (an oxymoron), and support of the morally corrupt (Carrie PreJean, Sarah Palin, Ted Haggard, and a long list of other of their "heroes").

We have seen a decline in American democracy with decreasing numbers of citizens participating in the democratic process, the attack on the democratic system of government in the contested presidential election of 2000, the stripping of the powers of the three legislative branches as a check and balance system, and the corruption of the last few administrations.

We have seen a decline in American society. We ignore international treaties that don't support our immoral positions. We thumb our noses at the United Nations. We overthrow leaders elected in democratic elections (but then we've done that a lot in our history...Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Hawaii, to name only a few).

Maybe what has happened is the facade of what I thought America was all about has started to crumble after years of denial. We weren't as holy and well-intentioned as I had thought. My dream has shattered in light of the reality of what America has always been and still is...a nation of great potential, happy to live with lies and deceit. So, I guess things haven't changed that much, have they?

Unlike Jonathan Edwards, I don't think America will be doomed by her religious faithlessness as much as by her ignorance of what a democracy requires from each of its citizens...involvement.

Now I will climb down from my high horse and go back outside to scrape even more snow off the previously cleared sidewalk.

[half-a-sista]

We have turned our lives over to electronic things. As treesta noted, we don't memorize phone numbers or addresses much anymore. Why? We have electronic devices to remember those things for us. I still keep an address book independent of my electronic devices. In fact, I don't intentionally keep addresses and phone numbers on any electronic device to protect them from electronic thieves.